'Congress-NCP must pay for Raj's rallies'

The Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded that the expenditure on Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray's rallies be added to the account statement of the Congress and the NCP candidates. This comes a day after mid-day reported how the election authorities were faced with a peculiar question pertaining to Thackeray's rallies.

BJP leader Vinod Tawde has now written to the chief electorate officer on behalf of his party, stating that Thackeray had been openly appealing to the people to vote for the UPA in upcoming Lok Sabha polls. "Because of his [Thackeray's] appeal, we want the EC to consider our demand. We want the expenses made on these events to be added to the account statement of UPA candidates," he said.

Thackeray started his political campaign on Friday from Nanded, where Congressman and ex-CM Ashok Chavan is the UPA candidate. The Commission reserves the right to verify the expenditure claims of registered parties and their candidates.

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